Improvement in fire-arms



S. ADAMS. Breeoh-Loadng Fire-Arms.

Patented October 5, 1.838.

N.PETERS. PMOTDLITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

SAMUEL ADAMS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS.

To all whom, it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, SAMUEL ADAMS, of Springfield, in the county ot' Hampden and State ol' Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fire-Arms; and I do hereby decare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and making part of said description.

The principal feature of my invention consists in so constructing the barrel of fire-arms as to be enabled to combine in the same barrel both a ritle and smooth-bore gun.

Figure l represents a perspective view of the combined gun; Fig. 2, a section through it; Fig. 3, the inside or ride-bored barrel; Fig. 4, the back sight; 5, a metallic cartridge suited to the ritle; Fig. 6, the same fitted to the shotgun.

a a, Figs. l and 2, represent the barrel in its combined state-that is to say, with a barrel having a ride-bored caliber inserted within the caliber of a smooth-bored gun, and made to load at the breech with a metallic cartridge, in the usual manner of guns constructed upon that principle, the construction and operation of which it would be useless to describe, as they appertain in no way whatever to my improvement. In the shotgun which receives its load in this manner, that part of the caliber which receives the metallic cartridge is necessarily made larger in order to receive it.

l This feature in a gun of such a description is of material service in my combined gun, inasmuch as the larger calibered part ot' the barrel is, after removing the cartridge of the shotgun, filled with a project-ion, b, Figs. 2 and 3, on the breech of the rifle-barrel, equal in length and diameter to that of the cartridge, so that the ride-barrel, being longer than that of the shot-gun, and inserted in it, projects beyond it at the muzzle, and on that part so projecting a screw is cut, c, Figs. 2 and 3, to which a nut, d, Figs. l, 2, and' 3, is fitted, by which means-viz., the projection on one end and nut itted to a screw on the other acting on the muzzle of the shotgunthe inside barrel is confined very securely within the other. The inside barrel has likewise a metallic cartridge, and is loaded and discharged in the usual manner. In the event of using this as a shotgun, the back sight is not necessary, Whereas when used as a rifle it is. Therefore I construct it in such a manner as that it may or may not be used, as occasion requires, and denominateitthe secret sight.7 As represented at Fig. 4, a recess is made in the sight-plate e equal in dimensions to those of the sight f, which is made to turn on a pivot at g, and can be raised or lowered to or from a vertical or horizontal position, and kept in either by a spring resting on the barrel directly under it, constantly pressing upward.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, ,is-

The combining of one barrel within the other, in manner and for the purposes herein set forth and described; and I also claim of making the back sight of a riiie turn on a pivot, in manner and for the purposes substantially as above described.

SAML. ADAMS.

Vitnesses:

G. H. VILTBERGER, J. W. HUBBARD. 

